According to the July 2005 Nielsen//NetRatings survey of the search habits of over a million web users, Google accounts for over 46.2% of the estimated 4.5 billion searches that occurred in that month.

Google clearly dominates the search market and is twice as popular as its nearest rivals, Yahoo and MSN.

Increasingly however, frustration has begun to build in the web community with regard to Google’s reluctance to index and catalogue new websites.

Newly launched websites are being spidered by Google’s robots as normal but the information that they obtain is not being converted into actual page listings for time periods that exceed, in some cases, nine months.

This listings delay has become known as the “Sandbox” and would appear to also affect existing sites that undergo significant design or navigational changes.

As with all things Google related, the exact nature of any filters or algorithmic changes remains purely conjecture as Google never reveals anything about its inner workings.

Empirical evidence however does seem to point to a delaying filter being applied by Google in an effort to stop those seeking to unfairly manipulate its search listings.

These short term spamming techniques involve the establishment of thousands of search engine optimised web sites that link to one another with the sole aim of manipulating Google’s search results in their favour, without providing any real value to the unsuspecting searcher.

This being the case, Google’s motives for delaying the cataloguing of new websites for up to nine months, would indeed seem honourable in its intentions.

The problem is that owners of legitimate new web sites are being denied the opportunity to position their products and services in front of Google’s massive audience.

Those of a less than generous nature may say that this is an attempt by Google not to rid the world of search engine spammers, but instead is a covert operation designed to increased advertising revenues as those sites denied organic listings on Google are forced to resort to Pay Per Click advertising through Google’s Ad Words programme.

Indeed many are now openly asking why Google does not give users the option to search the fabled “Sandbox” for new web sites and content, and provide warnings that these new sites have not yet proved themselves through longevity, relevance or popularity.

Rumblings within the internet community now point out that the original quality that  first attracted them to Google, the ability to easily find new and exciting content, is now absent from its present offerings and that alternatives such as MSN now offer the real deal in terms of  new and original content.

The one thing that has always stood Google in good stead is its ability to adapt and evolve whist mirroring the needs of the internet community.

Only time will tell if it’s mystical “Sandbox” proves to be an anti-spamming filter too far and if Google can once again return to the affections of the web community.

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Ivor Conway is the managing director of London based Saerch Engine Optimisation company http://www.neuchi.co.uk.